Chapter 13

I was in the kitchen, all the lights were out, and everyone had gone to bed. The only light came from the glow of the inside of the refrigerator as I held the door open, leaning in to look for something. I had no idea what I was looking for. I wasn’t even sure I was hungry. I started to reach for a can of whip cream when I heard the lightest of knocks on the front door. My hand was frozen in the air, shaped like a claw reaching for the can, I turned to stare in the direction of the front door.

I stood up straight, gently closing the refrigerator door and turned to look at the clock on the microwave. It was after eleven o’clock. I’m a very paranoid person. Most people don’t think maniacs will knock on the door, but what easier way is there to get past a locked door than having someone on the other side unlock it for you?

I tiptoed on sock covered feet towards the front door. Every nerve in my body was tingling with tension; the pent-up internal energy sparked inside me and flowed to my fingers, rushing to set the tips on fire, raising the hair on my arms. If it were Jodi or Steven, they would’ve called. The person tapped on the front door again, no louder than the first time. I froze. I was only steps away from the front door and the windows by it. I looked to the hallway and contemplated getting my dad, but something held me in place. I wanted to open the door. I thought of all those horror movies where the girl is home alone in the middle of the night and stupidly opens the door for the crazed killer. I always yelled at those girls and thought they deserved to die for being so stupid. Was I going to be that girl?

I made it to the window to the left of the front door; you could see who was at the door without them noticing you were looking. I lifted the very corner of the binds less than an inch away and peered through the darkness at the figure. It was a man, tall by my standards, dark hair that was probably lighter than it looked now. He was huddled in a thick coat, his hands shoved into the pockets, rounding his shoulders forward. He scuffed his toe on my doorstep and looked up at the overhang above the door. He reached out, balling up his fist and started reaching for the door again, but hesitated this time. His hand fell and he turned away from the door just as a car with its high beams on rounded the corner in front of my house, throwing the bright lights across Jensen’s startling features.

I scrambled for the door. I forgot that I was in silly stripped socks, oversized flannel pajama bottoms, and a sweatshirt that was probably three or four sizes too big. I flipped the front porch light on first, the fastest thing I could do to signal to him. I fumbled with the deadbolt and finally was able to wrench the door open. It was swollen from all the rain, but with one firm tug it gave. Jensen had stopped at the very edge of the front step when I turned on the light and was facing the door when I opened it. His skin looked luminescent in the darkness, making his blue eyes stand out in stark contrast, like an ocean just after a storm and the skies have opened up with brilliant sunlight.

“What are you doing here?” I whispered, happy to hear my voice was steady, if not suspicious.

“I was hoping we could talk?” he had the courtesy to whisper too.

“It’s after eleven o’clock, my parents…” I made a vague gesture to the house behind me.

“Oh right… we could sit in my car.” He mimicked my motion behind him towards the road.

“Um… I don’t know, Jensen. I mean…” I let my voice trail off. There wasn’t much that I’d like better than to sit in a dark private place with him where no one would interrupt us. I mentally blinked, realizing I hadn’t even admitted that to myself yet.

“Please?” His voice sounded a little strained, like it was very important that I say yes. I sighed and looked back towards the hallway. I could hear my father’s distant snoring and the rest of the house was quiet. If my parents woke up and found me out of the house without permission – in a car with a boy no less – I’d be grounded for sure. I knew I shouldn’t risk that with our plans for the next night, but a bigger part of me really wanted to go to him.

“Ok, hold on.” I put up one finger and then closed the door silently behind me as I stepped back into the house. I dashed as quietly as I could back to my room and grabbed my rain boots and my house keys. I kept them cupped in my hand to keep them from making any noise and made it back out the front door. Jensen had gone a few steps down our front walk and was staring out at the road with his back to me. I realized my stomach was tied up in knots that made it hard to breath. Me, nervous?

I locked the door behind me in case anyone woke up; I didn’t want them to see an unlocked front door and get suspicious and go looking for me. I scuffed my feet a little as I walked up behind Jensen so he’d know I was there without needing to say anything. I was a little afraid of how my voice would sound. He turned and gave me a small, almost sad, smile and motioned towards the car with his head. We walked side by side across the front lawn. I was horribly aware of the fact that he was dressed quite well for a spur of the moment meeting, whereas I had lost any hint of a figure in my baggy clothing. At least I was warm. Yeah, sure, that made me feel better.

He unlocked the car with an alarm remote, but he still reached for the passenger side door and opened it for me before walking around and getting in on the driver’s side. I sat with my left shoulder braced against the seat and my left leg curled under me so I could face him. He turned the car on and I was grateful to find his car was nowhere near as loud as mine. The radio was already on, but he turned the volume down low, making it a light background noise, still loud enough to fill any silences. He sat back in his seat. He wrapped his hands around the steering wheel as if we were going somewhere, but he didn’t put the car into gear. I had no idea why he wanted to talk to me and didn’t want to be the first to break the silence so I just sat there, waiting.

“Strange weather we’ve been having lately, huh?” Jensen didn’t strike me as one for small talk, so that took me aback at first, but he was pointedly not looking at me. This wasn’t small talk.

“That’s putting it lightly,” I said carefully. He nodded, his eyes still fixed on some far off point outside the windshield. I realized in my nervousness I had re-enforced my shields so much that I could almost see a fuzzy quality around the edges of Jensen’s body. I took a moment and centered myself. I had so much practice at doing this that I didn’t have to close my eyes or change my breathing. Slowly, like peeling away the layers of an onion, I took down my shields until the fuzzy quality faded and Jensen came back into sharp contrast. A weight pressed down on my chest, making it very difficult to breath. I opened my mouth and took in a deep, painful breath. Jensen turned and looked at me, a mixture of fear, anger, and confusion passed behind his eyes as he did.

“You’re reading me.” He didn’t ask, he knew better, but I wasn’t, not on purpose.

“No, I am not. You’re projecting, a lot.” I put my hand on my chest involuntarily, still having to control my breathing very obviously. He was upset and that was affecting his ability to control his shields. I wanted to reach out to him, give him some comfort and reassurance, but if just reading him bothered him that much I didn’t think he’d want me to influence him either. “Are you ok?” I finally asked.

“No, no, I’m not.”

I was surprised he answered so quickly and honestly. I was so used to our word games that I thought I would have to draw or trick it out of him.

“I think I need help.”

I heard a squeak and looked at his hands. He was gripping the steering wheel hard enough that the plastic underneath was giving and his fingers were long past white and were turning red with the effort.

“I haven’t slept in days… I’m in over my head and I can’t seem to break the surface. I’m drowning, Shayna.” He turned those endless eyes on me and I didn’t have time to enjoy the way he said my name. He was in pain and I didn’t think it was just emotional.

“What do you mean? What are you in over your head with?” I asked calmly, lowering my voice to a whisper. I had found after years of dealing with people’s emotions, the level of your voice effected people much more deeply than most realized.

“I don’t want to drag you into this. It isn’t fair of me. I shouldn’t have brought you this far as it is…” I didn’t think he was really talking to me anymore. He had looked away and shook his head as he spoke.

“What are you talking about? You haven’t done anything to me.” Anxiety pulsed out of his body and pushed me away from him. I felt like I was fighting to walk against a hot, angry wind.

“If only I had more control.” I was afraid he would burst the blood vessels in his hands if he didn’t let go soon. “I’m so sorry. You have to know that, Shayna, I tried to stop this. If I had known…” He turned back to me suddenly and I realized I had leaned towards him without really being conscious of doing so. Our faces were only inches away. I could smell his skin; it was sweet and dusky. I could almost taste it. He wrinkled his brow for just a moment and then leaned in, closing the few inches between us.

His lips were soft and firm at the same time. He kissed me almost angrily, I had the sense that he was trying to draw me into him. I sighed against him, trying to memorize the contours of his lips, the fullness of his bottom lip, the heat of his mouth. I reached out and touched his cheek with just my fingertips. A sharp twinge of power shot through my fingertips, shocking me enough to break the kiss.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, closing his eyes and letting his head fall.

“Don’t be,” I whispered, a little angry with myself for ruining the moment.

“I should go.” He turned to open his door. I reached out for his arm to stop him, but before I could even touch him that same energetic shock ran through me. I pulled my hand back suddenly, staring at it and remembering when Jodi and Steven had tried to read the spells in my journal. He was out of the car and on my side before I realized he’d cleared his door. He opened my door and stood back to let me out.

“I thought you wanted to talk?” I asked as I stepped out, standing in front of him.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, still not looking at me. He shut the door quietly and turned, placing a hand on the small of my back to lead me back up to my front door. I had the sensation of tiny electric pulses running up and down my spine from his touch. I stepped up onto my front step and he took his hand away and just as suddenly the sensations faded away as if they had never been there. I unlocked the front door and opened it an inch before I turned around to look at him again.

He had taken several steps back, too far away now to speak in whispers. I bit down on my lower lip, confusion plain on my face and I didn’t care. He raised a hand to me and gave a small wave and turned to go. I started to say something but I heard movement in the house and knew I needed to get inside before either of my parents found me outside. I closed the door as quietly as possible and threw the locks into place. By the time I made it to the window, his car was already gone.

As everyone hoped, school was closed again on Friday. There had been the occasional drizzle overnight and so many classrooms had been under two feet of water that the schools didn’t want to risk bringing kids back in when they could use the next three days to repair the damages as best as the public schools could afford to do. I spent the better part of the morning meditating, reaching out, and reinforcing my personal shields. Steven and Jodi were at home concentrating on calling up and storing all the Air and Fire energy that they could. Earth magic was easier to call up if I was outside, which we would be, so I didn’t feel the need to store any excess energy.

We knew the ritual wouldn’t be performed until midnight, so we needed to be down the coast after dark with alibis that would let us out of our houses well past our curfews. According to my mom, I was spending the night at Jodi’s, and according to Jodi’s mom, she was spending the night at my house. I didn’t know what Steven’s alibi was, but he’d said not to worry about it so I didn’t; I had enough things to worry about more than something as trivial as that.

I packed an overnight bag, laying our vials of consecrated water in the bottom and some clothing over them and then our ritual knives on top. I stared down at them, gleaming in the overhead light of my room and suddenly had a sense of great disappointment. Here we were, ready to charge into the dark forest armed with three knives. For the knives to be useful, we would have to be in very close proximity to the sociopath, not really what I was going for.

I jumped as my phone vibrated in my pocket, not realizing I had been holding my breath. I fumbled for the phone and got it to my ear before the voicemail picked up. “Hello?” My voice sounded too quiet.

“Terra?” Jodi’s voice sounded concerned over the phone.

“Yeah, Fae.” I concentrated on breathing normal to steady my voice.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, just didn’t think I’d get the phone in time. You ready?”

“Yeah. Drake’s here so you don’t have to go get him.”

“Good. You got your water?”

“Yeah, it’s in my bag.”

“Good, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” We both hung up without saying good-bye. I didn’t think much of it since I knew I’d be seeing her soon. I walked out into the living room, my bag slung over my shoulder, and gave both my parents a kiss good-bye. It wasn’t something we did often, but I guess I was a little more worried about tonight than I was willing to admit. If this was the last time I saw my parents, I’d like to feel good about our last moment together.

I was idling outside Jodi’s house in less than five minutes after we’d hung up. Steven slid into the back with the bags and Jodi took the front seat. Everything was as normal as if we were going to the movies on a Friday night. Too bad we weren’t. I had my New Age CD in the stereo again, hoping the soothing tones would calm our nerves. My hopes weren’t high.

We drove in silence; Jodi and Steven both were gazing out their respective windows, as if keeping lookout for some monster in the falling light. I was gripping the steering wheel tight enough to strain my fingers. I realized about a half hour down the road that my fingers were, in fact, aching. I eased my grip one finger at a time and took a deep breath, exhaling a little loudly through my mouth.

“Ditto,” Steven muttered from the backseat. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that most of the color from his face was gone and the lines in his jaw were so tight I could tell he was grinding his teeth. Jodi didn’t look much better.

“We need to calm down,” I said to the car at large. “Working ourselves up like this isn’t going to help us. It’ll probably hurt us actually, so we need to calm down.”

“Easier said than done,” Jodi said more than a little cynically.

“I know, but still we need to try.” I took my right hand off of the steering wheel completely and flexed my fingers back and forth trying to loosen them. Despite my efforts, we still kept silent racing down the highway, the ocean a black horizon meeting the deep blue sky of twilight out the passenger side windows. I turned the heater on a little higher as the windows started to frost over. We all had dressed warmly and darkly, all dark blue jeans and dark hooded sweatshirts, but the winter air was still chilling.

Finally, after what felt like far too long, I found the mile marker and parking lot I had been looking for. Down the highway there were two parking lots on either side of the road; one was used mostly by surfers and the other was for a campground that was completely deserted now. We parked in the surfer’s parking lot, facing the campground so we could watch and wait for whoever would be coming. We agreed they would probably park as far back away from the highway as possible to stay out of sight. I cut the engine and the lights and reached behind my seat for a couple of blankets. Without the heater, it was going to get cold inside the car fast. I handed one to Steven and stretched the other over the front seats for Jodi and me. We huddled down until we could just see over the dashboard so we wouldn’t be too obvious and settled into the long wait.

Full dark fell around us in a hush; past the windows you couldn’t see where the rocks ended and the ocean started. If it weren’t for the crashing, angry waves left over from the storm, you wouldn’t know it was out there. I rolled my head back and forth trying to loosen up my neck and shoulder muscles. Jodi was curled in her seat with the edge of the blanket up on her shoulders and clutched under her chin, leaving her head floating in the darkness. I glanced over my shoulder to check on Steven and nearly jumped in shock; he had fallen asleep curled up in the backseat!

“Are you serious!” I hissed at him, arching over my seat and reaching out to him to swat him on the hip. Jodi turned in her seat to see what was wrong and let her blue eyes go wide seeing Steven just start to wake up.

“Way to be a team player!” Her voice was louder than mine and made me jump again, but I managed to swat Steven again.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Two more swats and Steven came around fighting the blanket to sit up.

“Dude! I’m up, I’m up!” Steven said a little angrily.

“Shhhhh!” I put my finger to my mouth and shook my head at him. “Shut up! Jesus Christ! Are you kidding me?” I glared at him ready to ball him out when Jodi taped me rapidly, almost hitting me.

“Look!” She had hunched back down in her seat, leaning towards the dashboard and pointing out the windshield. I turned around quickly and scooted down in my seat, peering over the steering wheel and drawing in my bottom lip to chew on it. A dark car had just turned into the campground parking lot across the highway from us, slowly rolling past the first few rows of parking spots.

“Guess that’s our cue?” Steven asked in a whisper just over my shoulder.

“Not yet, we don’t want to let them see us. Don’t know what he’ll do to the girl if he sees us coming for them,” I said, never taking my eyes off the red glow of the car’s taillights.

“We don’t want to lose them in the woods though,” Jodi whispered.

“Yeah, but… Oh, look!” I cut myself off. “He’s parking.” We watched intently; I was pretty sure all of us were holding our breath. We could hear the distant echo of two car doors slamming shut.

“Ok, come on,” I whispered again and opened my car door, Jodi following my lead, and Steven getting out behind her. I gently set the door against the car and leaned my body against it to close it as quietly as possible with Jodi copying everything I did. We each had a vial of water in each pocket and gripped our knives in our dominant hands. We dashed across the highway, head and shoulders hunched down, trying to hide in the open, and hurried through the parking lot to follow the two into the woods.

The girl’s giggles floated back to me on a cold wind that made me shiver with fresh goose bumps. Her voice sounded more familiar than just one dream would have made it, but I didn’t have time to dwell on it. They were far enough into the woods to let us follow unnoticed. We stopped on the very edge of the asphalt before it became earthen floor and I turned and looked at Jodi and nodded.

She took a deep, steadying breath and reached out for my left hand. We turned and faced the woods, arms spread wide. Jodi closed her eyes and turned her face skyward. I closed my eyes to keep anything from distracting me, trusting Steven to keep a look out for anyone or thing. I was acting as Jodi’s anchor, keeping her physically and magically grounded as she called up the winds that were beginning to swirl around us, circling our ankles and dancing through our hair.

I felt her shiver and her energy shift, pulsing like a heartbeat and with every beat her energy grew stronger and wider. Just at the breaking point of losing control of her built up power, she released it in a gush of wind that raced through the trees, bushes, and fallen leaves. My hair blew away from my face and I had to concentrate on not losing my footing when the wind swirled back and pushed against me. We heard the music of the forest in the winds. Jodi came back to herself quicker than we would have done in a circle, but time was of the essence. Now with the sound cover of the wind playing through the forest we could move faster.

I nodded again to both of them and we stepped into the forest.

In our effort to be unseen and unheard, we had let them get farther away from us than I would have liked, but because of the noise from the wind I felt comfortable enough to hurry to catch up to them. After about thirty paces into the forest I could hear the girl’s giggling float back to me carried on the wind. My stomach flipped and I felt a cold sweat break out on the small of my back as I rode the wave of déjà vu. I concentrated on my breathing and on the noise of Steven and Jodi’s footsteps behind me and slightly to each side. I wasn’t alone, I had to remember that.

“Where are we going?” The girl’s voice sounded farther away than her giggles had led me to believe. I couldn’t hear the man’s response. I glanced over my shoulder at Steven and motioned with my hand to hurry. He relayed the message to Jodi and we started hiking faster. I was focusing on my breath, trying to keep it even, when I finally saw something pass between two trees just twenty feet ahead of us. I froze in my tracks and luckily both Jodi and Steven did the same. We were as silent as stone statues.

“Wait… I don’t- ack!” I heard the girl’s voice; she sounded frustrated, and maybe even a little scared. “Where did you go? Damnit! I tripped!” She whined and I strained my memory to remember where I’d heard that voice before.

Hey, Jodi’s yellow thoughts whispered in my mind as she leaned towards me, taking hold of my wrist. I turned at looked at Steven, holding out my arm to him, being careful to point my knife away from him. Steven took my arm, joining the channel Jodi had created. Doesn’t she sound like Michelle? Jodi asked.

Who? I asked turning confused eyes to her.

Oh my god! Yes! Oh my god, Terra! Steven’s terrified red-tinged words raced in my mind.

Who are you talking about?

Michelle! Tracy’s friend! Jodi thought at me, a little frustrated, but I could hear the fear overriding the frustration.

Oh my god…I whispered letting my mind race back to History and Michelle glaring at us for talking during the movie. I had never paid too much attention to Michelle, but even I could tell it was definitely Michelle’s voice that was echoing back to us. We turned as one back towards Michelle’s pleading voice. She was lost and whoever brought her here didn’t seem to care.

We started towards her, but I felt all the hair on my arms stand on end in the prickling sensation of power reaching out towards me. I took a deep breath and forced as much energy as I could into all three of our shields, forcing the power back away from us. What was that? Jodi asked, not having let go yet. I didn’t want to distract myself by answering her, so I just shook my head, straining my eyes to search through the darkness.

“Hey! Are you seriously gonna leave me out here alone?” I was pretty sure I heard her stomp her foot in anger like a child; I had the image of her hands balled into fists at her sides and shook my head. I was risking the lives of my two best friends and my life for an idiotic brat.

Come on, I whispered into their minds and broke the channel by stepping forward. I knew that rush of power that had reached out to us was him looking for us. I had hoped he was enough of an amateur not to feel the magic in the wind Jodi had called up, but if he was already possessed he may have more power than I could expect.

“There you are,” Michelle said. I could hardly hear her anymore.

I turned towards the faint voice and hurried my pace again, thin branches catching on my clothes and scratching welts into my face as we went. Jodi had to stop twice to untangle her short hair from prickly twigs. I had pulled my hair up into a bun to avoid things like that, but Jodi’s bob was too short to pull back. I didn’t want to slow my pace but I was worried about being separated, so Steven and I slowed and finally turned to look back at Jodi and wait for her. Once Jodi was less than ten paces away from us, Steven turned to continue on and was just past me when I saw Jodi stumble and fall to the ground. All the air was pushed out of her as she hit the forest floor, keeping her from crying out. I started towards her to help her up when her eyes flew wide and she tried to scramble towards me frantically, but something caught her and dragged her farther away from me.

I gasped and lunged for her, hitting the ground in front of her but close enough to grab her wrist in both my hands. I swiveled around, bringing my legs forward and sitting back on my butt. I drove my heels into the ground and pulled with all my strength. Steven wasn’t as quick on my tail as I would have liked, but he ran past me and got to Jodi’s legs and stopped short, turning to look at me with a terrified look on his face. “Terra! It’s the roots of a tree!”

“What?”

“Her leg! A tree’s roots are wrapped around her ankle!” He was clawing at her leg frantically, tearing at her jeans, and I saw flecks of bark hit his face as he tried to peal it away from her.

“Get up here!” I nearly yelled at him, “Take her arms!” Steven crawled up to me and slid in between Jodi and me, scooting his body down to wrap his arms around her torso and drove his heels into the ground just as I had done. I let go of Jodi’s arms and she wrapped both arms around Steven’s neck, hanging on for dear life.

I slid towards her legs and, sure enough, a thick tree root caught her right leg, but it had broken free of the ground and was actually wrapped around her ankle like a shackle and was trying to pull her into the ground. I would have survived, being able to breathe in the ground, but Jodi couldn’t. I laid both hands on the tree root. A searing heat burned my palms, racing up my arms and causing my whole body to ache with the pain of the burn.

I am Terra, Earth Mother, hear me and obey! I invoked all the earth energy I had in my body and pumped it into my hands and down through the roots. Release us from your grasp! Another shocking wave of heat struck me through the tree, but I held on. Release us! Release us now! My voice echoed in a booming resonance through my mind and I felt Jodi and Steven gasp in shock as if they had felt my power.

The root trembled in my hands and in that perfect moment its grasp loosened and Jodi kicked free. Steven pulled with all his strength and they were out of the tree’s reach.

Jodi’s face was streaked with tears, but she wasn’t crying from fear, just pain, and was already regaining her composure. I pulled up her pant leg and saw an angry welt forming there. I placed my hands around her ankle and drew out the pain and pulled it into my hands. It seared my skin just as it had seared hers, but I held on to it, saddling it. The welt faded from her pale skin, leaving it unmarred, and she breathed a sigh of relief. We all stood and raced towards the girl’s voice. He knew we were here and was trying to stop us from reaching them—all pretences were over.

I raced in the direction I knew they were going. We were getting closer; I could feel the air around us, though racing with Jodi’s wind, was getting thicker and a little harder to breathe. He was trying to keep us away. Just when I wasn’t sure we’d be able to breathe if we went much further, I heard Michelle say, “Um… what is this?” I knew they were inside his circle. He didn’t respond to her. Michelle giggled again, “Come on, tell me. What’re we doing here?” She had let her voice fall to a deeper octave trying to be coy and seductive.

We broke the tree line into the clearing we were racing towards. I had the sensation of breaking through the wall of a gentle waterfall pass over me. I looked around and saw Michelle’s back as she was being led by the hand towards a table laid with black cloth and lit candles. How they were staying lit in the gushing wind I didn’t know. Jodi and Steven hadn’t stepped into the clearing; I looked over my shoulder at them and saw that they were trying to push past an invisible wall, looking at me with terrified eyes. I looked back to Michelle and saw she was dangerously near the table. I couldn’t let her reach the table. Something inside me urged me beyond control and before I could stop myself I called out to her, “Michelle! Stop!”

Michelle turned to me, confusion plain on her face, but the man refused to turn and look at me. I tried to look at him, but my eyes seemed to slide past him, only able to focus on the table and trees behind him. I closed my eyes and shook my head trying to clear my vision. I knew that trick, having used it myself, but it didn’t stop me from trying to look at him anyway. He was reaching for the hooded cloak draped over the table. Swirling it with a flourish, he put it on, pulling the hood over his head.

“Shayna?” Michelle looked at me, confusion quickly being replaced by anger. I didn’t understand her reaction, but I ran towards her anyway. She finally saw the knife in my hand and screamed, backing up into the man, but he still didn’t turn. She ran around him to use him as a shield against me, putting herself in front of him. Michelle looked up into his face, opening her mouth to speak, but no words came out. Her face was frozen in fear. I was able to focus on him long enough to see his free hand was raised above his head, gripping the same menacing knife I had seen in my dream.

“Michelle! Run to me!” I screamed at her, still running towards her. Michelle tried to jerk her hand away from him and dodged out of the way just in time for the knife to fly past her as he tried to plunge it into her. Michelle screamed wordlessly, tearing at his hand with her free hand. I finally got to her. But just as I too tried to strike with my knife he spun around to face me, pulling Michelle into his chest and wrapping his arm around her torso, pining her arms to her side and holding the point of the knife dangerously near her throat. I couldn’t see his face as the hood of his cloak cast a deep shadow.

“What do you want?” I couldn’t think of anything else to say. If he wanted Michelle dead, he could do it at any second.

He didn’t answer me but motioned towards Michelle and then to me with his chin. A trade. I had come into the circle willingly, idiot. “Fine, let her go,” I said, proud to hear my voice was steady, but he shook his head. He wasn’t going to give up his hostage that easily.

My palms ached with burning and something inside me clicked and I lunged towards them. Michelle screamed as I grabbed his forearm. I transferred the searing heat I had pulled out of Jodi’s leg into his arm, multiplying it with my own power, and he screamed, letting go of Michelle and stumbling backwards. I grabbed Michelle without thinking and raced away from him to the tree line, towards Jodi and Steven.

We crashed through the trees and bushes and fallen leaves, stumbling and sliding downhill, desperate to get away. I never once let go of Michelle. Like breaking the surface of water after nearly drowning, the four of us fell down the last few feet of a hill and tumbled out onto the highway. I felt the grip of terror fall away from me as soon as we hit the asphalt. We scrambled as one and raced to the parking lot and into my car, tearing down the highway. I glanced in my rearview mirror to look at Michelle just as she fainted.